Overview
- The John Lewis Partnership disclosed on Thursday that it posted a pre-tax loss of £124 million for the six months to August as group sales rose 2% to £6.3 billion.
- Sales at John Lewis fell 2% to £2.0 billion while Waitrose grew 4% to £4.3 billion, though Waitrose’s margin narrowed from 2.8% to 2.6% after extra costs from summer heatwaves.
- Management blamed rising employment costs, including the Labour government’s increase to employer national insurance contributions, and continued spending on a multi-year transformation programme for higher operating costs.
- The group has reorganised its head office as part of the transformation, resulting in some job losses that the company says affect less than 1% of its workforce.
- JLP warned that the full-year outcome will depend on second-half peak trading, and said the result could influence hiring, promotional activity, and margin pressure across the business in coming months.